Spontaneous human combustion

Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is the burning of the human body without an external source of ignition. As it is an unproven natural phenomenon (for those who have not read the comprehensive ref. (Arnold) cited below [1]), there is much speculation and controversy regarding SHC. In most cases, a small shrunken skull, part of a leg(s) (with the clothing still on), or sometimes both are found in the remains of the person thought to have combusted. A definitive volume which covers hundreds of cases and years in various levels of detail addresses the SHC debunkers' rationales. This reference presents pictures and various testimonies are presented (including from trained fire responders who witnessed SHC in progress in England). Given some evidence documenting this phenomena, and the attempts to debunk it, suggests (for some persons) that some motive to conceal it from the general public is present. Perhaps, as one speculative reason as to "why", the debunkers are attempting to minimize fear amongst the population in general regarding this horrific event mostly resulting in death of the victim(s). Sometimes multiple victims burst into flames simultaneously, further confounding the perceived complexities and attempts to explain this deadly phenomena.

Possible explanations

Many hypotheses have attempted to explain how SHC might occur, but those which rely on current scientific understanding say that with instances mistaken for spontaneous combustion, there actually was a source of ignition.
1) One such hypothesis is the "wick effect", in which the clothing of the victim soaks up melted human fat and acts like the wick of a candle. Another possibility is that the clothing is caused to burn by a discharge of static electricity.

[The likelihood that truly spontaneous human combustion actually takes place within the body is quite low.]

2)Another theory poses that, since every human body contains varying strengths of electrical field and the human body also contains flammable gases (mainly methane in the intestines), an electrical discharge could be able to ignite these gases. The oxygen needed for combustion is ostensibly provided by the air around the victim.

3) Yet another theory suggests that an external but naturally occurring phenomena (e.g. high energy particles/gamma rays for instance) perhaps coupled with susceptibilities in the potential victim (e.g. possibly increased alcohol in the blood for instance) triggers the initial reaction. This process may use no external oxygen to spread throughout the body and which may not even be an oxidation-reduction reaction in the first place. Normally bone destruction in a crematorium requires 12 hours at temperatures above 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. Since the destruction to the victims bones are often complete, resulting in pure ash, the implied operating mechanism must achieve extremely high temperatures, perhaps in the several thousands of degrees for a short duration in order to achieve complete "ashing" of the body with low damage to nearby flammable items (e.g. like clothing in contact for instance). Demographic attempts to categorize the victims fail since many age groups are represented including infants as are animals.

As an anomalous phenomenon

A field of SHC theory asserts that the cause of SHC is supernatural, though this is not accepted by the scientific community.

Discrediting SHC by Association

Defenders of SHC object to attempts to link the subject with other unknown phenomena such as "crystal balls", "psychic forces", "curses" and so on. The problem is that agreed facts are few and attempts to replicate SHC for scientific study have not been successful. Advocates of SHC claim that it is a natural process whose cause is not at present understood. The merits of this position cannot be assessed until a proper study of SHC is undertaken, but the rareity of the phenomon is a major obstacle.

Possible lines of enquiry include the following:
1) Radiation counters /sensor count with timestamp ref to location and time elapsed (Arnold).
2) Blood chemistry analysis per distance from ashed region (for unburned remaining flesh).
3) Detailed ash analysis of victim(s) (e.q. liquid gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, etc.)
4) Detailed inventory of food and drink on the scene (including water samples from sink, cups. etc.
5) Research into what the victims ate or drank for several days prior to the event.
6) Sampling melted and unmelted plastics with documentation of distance from main heat source. The detailed composition of these plastics should be compared.
7) Details of local weather in the days before the event.
8) Listing of any other anomalies within a several block area of SHC event even if thought to be unrelated (noises, flashes of light, EMI, EMF, radio disturbances, power failures or brown outs, etc.)
9) Non-contact temperature readings of "remains" videotaped over time from arrival on scene to 12-24 hours later. Same for infrared spectrum.
10) Monitoring of first actors'/responders'-in-contact health to see if any after affects result and are in common with others.

It would be desirable - though probably impracticable - to have specially trained teams to investigate cases of suspected SHC.

John E Heymer and The Entrancing Flame

Described by Joe Nickell as an "English coal-miner-turned-constable," John E. Heymer wrote a 1996 book entitled The Entrancing Flame.

The title is derived from one inductive conclusion that he had reached from examining many cases; namely that SHC victims are lonely people who fall into a trance immediately before their incineration. Heymer suggests that a psychosomatic process in such emotionally-distressed people can trigger off a chain reaction by freeing hydrogen and oxygen within the body and setting off a chain reaction of mitochondrial explosions.

However, counter-arguments against Heymer's theories pose that they are lacking basis in scientific theory and observation. Ian Simmons, in a review of The Entrancing Flame, criticized Heymer thus: "He seems to be under the illusion that hydrogen and oxygen exist as gases in the mitochondrial cell [sic] and are thus vulnerable to ignition, which is, in fact, not the case."

But clearly Simmons has not taken any highschool level chemistry course which would familiarize him with the periodic table and the relationships of the various elements with and upon hydrogen and it's compounds. Thus his argument relies on the ignorance of the reader to accept his argument against the gauntlet of data to the contrary found in as well as associated commentary found in viewing online periodic tables for instance. In addition, Simmons has no actual sample of the actual victims in order to base his conclusions on presuming that cell chemistry has not changed in the victims (versus non-victims) which is dubious at best. Also hemoglobin absorbs atmospheric oxygen in the lungs and is transported to the cells as part of normal life process. Thus oxygen is presumed to be widely available throughout the (living) human body -- which undermines Simmons rebuttal to a degree since his quibble is with a specific mechanism rather than the main theme or thrust of Heymer's theories (i.e. the availability of at least one flammable molecule (Ox) throughout the body -- with a try at trying to figure out how hydrogen may have become available as well.)

Also, Since Ian Simmons, as a representative of mainstream science, is unable to use Newton's Theory or Einsteins' theories (foundational theories of the universe) to explain "globular clusters" he is therefore in no logical position to invoke "scientific theory and observation" in his debunking attempt. If Newton's & Einstein's theories are insufficient to explain one phenomena (globular clusters) then they are in no position to explain others. If Simmons states that he is not an expert in those areas then he has stated that he is no expert on debunking SHC either -- since the SHC's process understanding may be part of and partial to the misunderstandings about nature as represented in those theories ( Newton's & Einsteins') as well as may span multiple areas of science. Since the underlying SHC process remains unknown with certainty (but it's features are known) it is a bogus debunk attempt to invoke some reasoning from some small area of science (however fudged) in order to debunk theories about SHC in totality (i.e. that SHC must not exist at all.) Thus Simmons merely displays his arrogance and prejudicial biases against SHC (and is apparently in good company) and his argument 'goes up in flames'! :) Trying to assert that just one area of science can be sued to debunk an unknown process is faulty logic and subject to SFLC (Spontaneous Faulty Logic Combustion:)

Simpson also uses supposition to "broad brush away" something happening with hydrogen and oxygen at the cellular level or lower but which may be active in SHC. Since the result of SHC is dessicated ash "some process" is removing those components either as water (H20) or as freed gases. Thus his unfounded nitpick being presumed by him to be an all inclusive conclusion is yet another slippery and bogus means used by amateur debunkers like him. In order to achieve the goal of steering others away from this phenomena as being "Real", Simpson hopes that his depravity of thought and logic will go unnoticed. (Wrong.) Heymer's theories may be thematically but not specifically correct in that "blue jets of flames" are commonly seen in the SHC victims (both deceased and survivors). "Brown's gas" also exhibits a similar trait in the burning of Hydrogen (and Oxygen) and may thus be somehow relevant especially with regards to the higher temperatures reached (especially with a "welding arc" assist/ supplement).

In Fairness to the SHC Skeptics and Debunkers: One Facet of Motivation

Though the exact arguments used by Skeptics and Debunkers seem to fall short, it may well be that they are not worthy of derision depending on their motivations. Arnold's book cites a woman, whom has the highest IQ human on the planet, stating that she has not seen a case of SHC in response to being asked about it. In view of all the pictures and testimonies in support of SHC as being a real phenomena, it is puzzling that such an intellect may respond in such a way. Speculating that she and perhaps others have fathomed that SHC is a real effect, perhaps they have reasoned that the widespread knowledge of how it works might not be a good thing for humankind in general -- thus the coy responses and steady skeptics' drumbeat. In other words, it is for everyone's own good that knowledge about how SHC works, if known, should be held closely in order to maintain peace and order. If this strategy is in effect, it creates a dilemma situation for first responders/fireman since they are entirely familiar with the same extensive evidence yet hear their trainers et al claiming that SHC does not exist. A better strategy is to except that SHC does exist but to state outright that it is better for everybody/humankind that such details as to How it works is better kept "close to the vest". Most people could understand this angle with greater ease rather than trying to stomach some of the lame debunker attempts (which probably are convincing to those of lower intelligence). In this way, it is acceptable for fireman and investigators to discuss this possibility without a stigma being attached and yet aware that any such details as to what causes it and how it works maybe held "close hold" for everybody's benefit.

Alleged deaths and survivals

Deaths

• Robert Francis Bailey
• John Irving Bentley
• George I. Mott
• Mary Reeser
• Jeannie Saffin
• Henry Thomas
• Ellison Sarah Cook
• Hundreds more cases are discussed in Larry E. Arnolds book

Survivals

A number of people have reported serious burns that injured their bodies with no apparent cause, suggesting SHC or a very closely-related occurrence. This list is not intended to be taken as comprehensive.

• Jack Angel
• Many more cases are discussed in Larry E. Arnolds book [1] .

Survivors of static flash fires/events

Two examples of people surviving potentially-catastrophic static flash events are given in Heymer's book The Entrancing Flame. Both cases are supported by eyewitnesses. The accounts are in the form of written and signed statements from named individuals, shorn of some details to protect the privacy of correspondents.

• In September 1985, a young woman named Debbie Clark was walking home when she noticed an occasional flash of blue light:

It was me. I was lighting up the driveway every couple of steps.
As we got into the garden I thought it was funny at that point. I was walking around in circles saying: 'look at this, mum, look!' She started screaming and my brother came to the door and started screaming and shouting 'Have you never heard of spontaneous human combustion?'

Debbie's mother, Dianne Clark:

I screamed at her to get her shoes off and it [the flashes] kept going so I hassled her through and got her into the bath. I thought that the bath is wired to earth. It was a blue light you know what they call electric blue. She thought it was fun, she was laughing.

• In winter 1980, Cheshire, England resident Susan Motteshead was standing in her kitchen, wearing flame-resistant pajamas, when she was suddenly engulfed in a short-lived fire that seemed to have ignited the fluff on her clothing but burned out before it could set anything properly alight.

I was in the kitchen and my daughter just screamed out that my back was on fire. As I looked down it sort of whooshed all over me. It was like yellow and blue flames all over me. I was not burned at all. Not even my hair was burned.

The daughter, Joanne Motteshead, confirms this account and adds that the fire brigade arrived and tried (unsuccessfully) to set fire to Susan's pajamas.

•  : The two subjects (Debbie Clark and Susan Motteshead), speaking independently and with no knowledge of each other, give similar histories.

Clark:

I was not wearing any nylon clothing [at the time of the flashes]. I used to suffer a lot with static electricity so I tended not to wear anything nylon. I used to crackle with static when taking off my clothes and if I touched any metal thing it used to hurt me. I used to have a lot of trouble with electrical things. They would break down or blow up.

Motteshead:

I had just washed and dried my hair [at the time of the incident]. I used to have a lot when I was younger. I used to get shocks from touching fridges, things like that.

In fiction

The second and third chapters of Charles Brockden Brown's 1798 novel Wieland focuses on the emigration of Wieland, a German, to colonial America. Wieland practices a solitary form of Protestantism. As part of his religious practices he spends solitary hours in a temple constructed on his property. One night his family hears " a loud report, like the explosion of a mine." Rushing to the temple, they find Wieland lying with his clothing burned off and delirious. He dies soon after. While the term "spontaneous human combustion" was not yet created, Brown includes a footnote at the end of chapter 2 that suggest the phenomena and its existence in 18th century medical studies. The footnote reads:

"A case, in its symptoms exactly parallel to this, is published in one of the Journals of Florence. See, likewise, similar cases reported by Messrs. Merille and Muraire, in the "Journal de Medicine," for February and May, 1783. The researches of Maffei and Fontana have thrown light upon this subject."

Examples of spontaneous combustion occur in three works by the nineteenth-century Russian author Nikolai Gogol. In the story "St. John's Eve" from Gogol's "Village Evenings Near Dikanka" (1831–32) the guilty character Petro the orphan spontaneously combusts when confronted with a vision of a child he had killed. In the story "Vii," a huntsman in a Cossack village combusts after an encounter with a witch: "And once, when they came to the stable, instead of him there was just a heap of ashes and an empty bucket lying there: he burned up, burned up of his own self." In the novel Dead Souls, the landowner Korobochka laments that her serf-blacksmith burned up: "Something inside him started burning somehow, he'd had too much to drink. A blue flame just came out of him, and he smoldered and smoldered all over, and turned black as charcoal, and he was such a really skillful blacksmith!."

In the first chapter of the novel Jacob Faithful (1834) by Frederick Marryat there is a vivid account of the hero's mother perishing "in that very peculiar and dreadful manner, which does sometimes, although rarely, occur, to those who indulge in an immoderate use of spirituous liquor. Cases of this kind do, indeed, present themselves but once in a century, but the occurrence of them is too well authenticated. She perished from what is termed spontaneous combustion, an inflammation of the gases generated from the spirits absorbed into the system."

In the novel Bleak House (1853) by Charles Dickens, the character Krook is killed by spontaneous combustion, "engendered in the corrupted humors of the vicious body itself". Jules Verne describes in his novel Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen (1878) that when a fictional African "King of Kazounde" tasted a punch set aflame, "An act of spontaneous combustion had just taken place. The king had taken fire like a petroleum bonbon. This fire developed little heat, but it devoured nonetheless." Verne has no doubt about SHC being the result of alcoholism : "In bodies so thoroughly alcoholized, combustion only produces a light and bluish flame, that water cannot extinguish. Even stifled outside, it would still continue to burn inwardly. When liquor has penetrated all the tissues, there exists no means of arresting the combustion."

In the video game Twisted Metal III, the character Damien Cole is described as having "mastered the fine art of spontaneous combustion", leading others to believe he has lighter fluid coursing through his veins.

In the novel Brimstone (2004) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child spontaneous human combustion is discussed as a possible cause of death in some homicides.

In the Television Show Dead Like Me (2004) a reap of Daisy Adair was caused because of Spontaneous combustion. After she stated "I always thought it (Spontaneous Combustion) was a myth."

In the fictional Television Show Picket Fences (season 2, episode 2 "Duty Free Rome") the Mayor of Rome Wisconsin Bill Pugen dies, as the result of Spontaneous Combustion, while appealing his murder conviction.

In the novel Fire Pattern by Irish sci-fi writer Bob Shaw Spontaneous Human Combustion is result of alien invaders taking control of human bodies.

In the movie Repo Man, the incineration of a police officer by the mysterious object in the trunk of a car is cited as an example of spontaneous human combustion by a government agent ("It happens sometimes. People just explode.")

In the episode "Soft Light" of the television series The X-Files some murder victims are thought to have died via spontaneous human combustion.

In the animated television series South Park, the episode "Spontaneous Combustion" involves many people in the town suddenly bursting into flames. Stan Marsh's father finds out this is caused by intestinal gas.

One of the interviewers of the show Celebrity Deathmatch, Stacey Cornbread, died because of spontaneous human combustion.

In the film This Is Spinal Tap several of the band's drummers died of freak accidents, including one who spontaneously combusted on stage, leaving behind only a "globule". David St. Hubbins stated "Dozens of people spontaneously combust every year; it's just not very widely reported."

In the BBC TV series New Tricks, an episode called Big Topped featured an apparently impossible crime involving incineration inside a locked circus caravan; spontaneous human combustion is suggested as an explanation, although this is later rejected. At one point one of the characters replicates the QED experiment referred to above.

In the NCIS episode "Heart Break" (season 2), a Navy Commander appears to spontaneously combust in hospital. It is later found to be faked by the Commander's surgeon to cover up her mistake during surgery that caused the commander's death.

In Marvel Comics, the Golden Age Human Torch, his sidekick Toro, and the Fantastic Four's own Human Torch Johnny Storm have the ability to spontaneously combust at will.

Quotations

There's one mystery I'm asked about more than any other: spontaneous human combustion. Some cases seem to defy explanation, and leave me with a creepy and very unscientific feeling. If there's anything more to SHC, I simply don't want to know.

— Arthur C. Clarke (1994)

The opinion that a man can burn of himself is not founded on a knowledge of the circumstances of the death, but on the reverse of knowledge - on complete ignorance of all the causes or conditions which preceded the accident and caused it.

— Justus von Liebig (1855)

See also

• Exploding animal
• Anomalous phenomena
• Combustion
• Spontaneous combustion
• Pyrokinesis
• Wick effect

References

External links

• CSICOP article on spontaneous human combustion
• "Spontaneous Human Combustion" – from the Skeptic's Dictionary
• A BBC article describing the experiment
• Article on causes of spontaneous human combustion including history.
• Spontaneous Human Combustion an Anomalies Study.
• Spontaneous Human Combustion or SHC from SpookyFiles.
• Matthew Alice's Straight from the Hip column on spontaneous human combustion
• Article on causes of spontaneous human combustion including history
• Pardon Me, While I Burst Into Flames
• Aug. 9, 1951: Associated Press report on the death of Mary Hardy Reeser
• Spontaneous human combustion and the wick effect
• "Ablaze!: The Mysterious Fires of Spontaneous Human Combustion" by Larry E. Arnold, June 2006
• "HowStuffWorks 'How Spontaneous Human Combustion Works'"